The Starting Point – At the End The Resurrection Experience I. I.The resurrection experience is the starting point of the Christian religion and of reflection on Jesus. A.The problem for us is that outside of the Gospels, there are only a few extant sources that view Jesus from a standpoint other than that of faith in him 1.Jewish source: Babylonian Talmud, 2.Roman historians Suetonius and Tacitus, 3.Pliny the Younger- governor of Bythinia (110 AD) and later 2 nd century satirist Lucian of Samosata.

B.Most of our sources for knowledge of Jesus have an “insider” character. They never would have been written, nor most likely would Jesus have been remembered apart from the resurrection event. 1.The resurrection is not simply an event of the past for the first believers but the critical dimension of our own existence. 2.Their memories of Jesus are both selected and shaped by these convictions: Almost without exception, there is no saying or story about Jesus that is not based upon the truth of the Resurrection. The Starting Point – At the End The Resurrection Experience

3. The NT Writings (Letters and Gospels) were not, nor were they ever intended to be, simply histories of the past. 4. They are witnesses and interpretations of Jesus grounded in the experiences of the witnesses and interpreters. 5. The gospels are, therefore, distinctively complex and layered compositions, addressing not only Jesus’s past but also his present activity among readers, including US! (See Mark 13:14, 13:36) The Starting Point – At the End The Resurrection Experience

II.For this reason it is important to grasp the nature of the resurrection experience and conviction among the early Christians. A.The earliest Christian compositions (i.e., the letters of Paul) make powerful claims concerning an experience of power: 1.The claim to “being saved” is linked to the claim to a personal, transcendent, transforming power that is associated with “the Holy Spirit.” 2.Christians regarded themselves as participants in a “new age” and a “new creation.” (2 Cor 5:17) The Starting Point – At the End The Resurrection Experience

B.Such claims to religious experience are connected to convictions concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was executed under Roman authority. 1.After his death Jesus entered fully into a share of God’s existence and power. He was elevated to “the right hand” of God as Lord (kyrios). (Ps 110; 1 Cor12:L3) 2.He is now “life-giving spirit” (1 Cor 15:45; pneuma) and powerfully present among his followers. 3.Jesus as living Lord is the “person” who is the source of the Spirit that changes them as persons and makes them a new creation and the authentic Israel (Gal 3). Those “with Spirit” bare mark of the authentic Israel. The Starting Point – At the End The Resurrection Experience

III. III.Precisely the astonishing (even outrageous) claims to experience and conviction concerning Jesus create cognitive dissonance for those making them and require interpretation both for Jesus and of their own lives. Cognitive dissonance is a concept drawn from the social sciences to describe the tension between contradictory ideas or between convictions and experiences. (e.g., Luke 24:19-24) The Starting Point – At the End The Resurrection Experience

A.In the case of Jesus, the manner of his death creates such a dissonance between the claim that he is the source of life and blessing and the convictions embedded in the symbolic world of the first believers. 1.Paul speaks of “the cross” as “foolishness to Greeks” and the “stumbling block” to Jews (1 Cor. 1:18-25)—and all the first believers were one or the other! The Starting Point – At the End The Resurrection Experience

2.Jesus’ manner of death did not conform to Greek ideas of a potential “son of God.” ●Such as the death of Socrates or Xeno, who died with valor and strength. ●Jesus died in what might be termed despair (Matt 26:36-46); abandonment (Matt 26:56; 27:46), and not defending one’s self (Matt 26:63; 27:14). 3.Jesus’ death by crucifixion was one cursed by God (Deut. 21:23) and confirmed the Jewish perception that he was a false messiah. ● There were many job descriptions for the Messiah in 1 st century Judaism: Priestly Messiah, Davidic Messiah ● But one thing was certain, He must make things better for the Jews; and he seemingly failed at that. The Starting Point – At the End The Resurrection Experience

B.Not only Jesus’s manner of death, but also other experiences of the first Christians strengthened the sense of the cognitive dissonance. lIf they were holy, why was there still sin among them. lIf they were in a new creation, why did they still die? C.Cognitive dissonance can be resolved in several ways. The first Christians resolved theirs by reinterpreting their symbolic world (especially their scripture =Torah) in light of the crucified and raised Messiah Jesus. (see Acts 9) The Starting Point – At the End The Resurrection Experience

IV.From the beginning, Christianity had a profoundly paradoxical character. It spread across the ancient world with unprecedented rapidity, creating communities that eventually bound themselves together in an organization that, by the 4th century, was able to assume the status of the official religion of the Roman empire. The Starting Point – At the End The Resurrection Experience